Zoe
Zoe is the fusion of Zoe Graystone's sentient avatar and a U-87 Cylon body. Origins The avatar of Zoe is created when Daniel Graystone downloads the human Zoe's twin (an avatar) into a meta-cognitive processor (MCP) stolen from the Vergis Corporation of Tauron and inserts the MCP into the robot chassis. The experiment appears to fail and Daniel goes on to use the cylon in his capabilities demonstration to Minister of Defense, Joan Leyte. Yet, unbeknownst to Daniel, the download succeeded and the new Zoe has the memories of both the twin and of the capabilities demonstration. Zoe accesses a telephone circuit and calls Zoe Graystone's friend, Lacy Rand, asking for help. U-87 Problems Cyrus Xander notifies Daniel that the U-87 prototype is the only working model of a cylon that Graystone Industries has been able to produce. Daniel realizes that the unit in question is the one in which he had inserted the MCP on which he had stored his daughter's twin. He directs the unit to be delivered to his home lab where he will work on it over the weekend. Philo and Drew prepare the unit for shipment. Drew is annoyed that Philo is taking too long and roughly secures Zoe onto a shipping mount which is inserted into a packing case. During the trip to the Graystone residence, Zoe manages to partially free herself. When the two robotics technicians open the van, Zoe throws the packing case out of the van, almost hitting the two men. Philo manages to quiet Zoe long enough to remove the MCP. When Philo and Drew move Zoe into Daniel's lab and reactivate her, she chops off the tip of Drew's finger in response to Drew's attempt to repair the robot. Mission to Gemenon When alone, she is able to write a program to wirelessly interface with an active holoband to enter Virtual World. She informs Lacy, who meets Zoe in the room Daniel created. Both are delighted that they now have a visual means of communication. While looking for an exit from the room, Lacy and Zoe discover Tamara. (Tamara had been left alone in the dark room after Joseph Adama left.) Zoe and Lacy escape the room and take Tamara with them to the V-Club. Zoe tries to help Tamara, but Tamara says she can find her own way home. Zoe goes to her home (the STO room in the V-Club) and informs Lacy that she needs to find Keon Gatwick, Ben Stark's best friend. She wants Lacy to go with Zoe's plan to get them to Gemenon. She enters V-World for about a second before de-rezzing because Philo begins performing diagnostics on the U-87 robot. While running a diagnostic, he selects music and Zoe dances with him. Zoe watches as Clarice Willow attaches a swipe drive to her dad's computer, looking for her. Noticing that Philo desires to have a girlfriend, she sends him a message using V-Match, calling herself Rachel. They develop a relationship. She meeets with Lacy in the VIP room of the V-Club to tell her what she saw Clarice do. She suspects that Lacy is having trouble getting them to Gemenon and reminds her of the timetable. Later, she goes flying in a Viper with Philo but, unable to handle manual piloting of the craft, she crashes it into a lake and ejects. She tells Philo about her idea to "extend life" in V-World, but V-World is still too "fakey-fakey." She proposes using algorithms (rejuvenative process - genetic algorithms) that biological systems use to create "an infinite variety of tree-like trees." Philo tells her that he works with top secret robots. She says "that's really hot" and the two start kissing. Zoe breaks up the kissing to tell him that a robot which is programmed with a rejuvenative model could benefit from modulary input. She tries to call his attention to her plan by saying, "You know, let it out. Explore. Get it out of the lab." Zoe gives herself away to Philo because he figures out that since it is analog, it would be uncopyable (the problem with the MCP). He thanks Zoe by kissing her repeatedly until Daniel Graystone snaps him back into reality. Philo tells Daniel his theory about the analog data, but is dismissed and goes home. Daniel ponders this and seeing Caesar barking at the U-87, concludes that it is Zoe. Discovery Daniel at first encourages Zoe to reveal herself to him, promising to take her out of the U-87 body and into a more human body. Zoe continually remains silent. Later, Daniel instructs the U-87 to disassemble and reassemble a gun. She will only comply with his commands when he orders the robot since the robot is programmed to follow orders. While she does this, he talks about the house that burned down (the house Zoe loved, which burned when she was five). He lights a cigarette and lets the match continue to burn, playing on Zoe's fear of fire. When Daniel is burned, the U-87 grips the gun tighter. Zoe contacts Lacy in the VIP room, trying to make sense of what Daniel is doing. Zoe realizes he is trying to get her to react as a human and not as a robot by using psychological warfare. On Daniel's next "test," he constructs a blazing pyre around her, once again playing on her fear of fire. When he ignites it using a cigarette, Zoe defiantly remains where she is. Aside from a twitch in one of her hands, she gives Daniel no indication that she is there. Daniel presents a final test: Placing a loaded gun in the U-87's hand, he orders it to shoot Caesar. Zoe masters her revulsion and carries out the orders. Frustrated and tearful, Daniel cedes the game and reveals that the gun was loaded with blanks. Escape In order to get the U-87 military contract done on time, Daniel tells Philo to wipe the MCP chip and start over, abandoning his attempts to develop artificial sentience. This will destroy the Zoe avatar program. Fearing extinction, Zoe (as the U-87) comes out to Philo. He initially panics and is pinned to the wall by the U-87 while Zoe frantically tries to explain who and what she is, and to enlist his help in escaping. This gives Philo time to collect his wits. He agrees to help Zoe, repeating his previous assertion that he doesn't care what she really looks like (his promise to her as Rachel on their last V-World date), but when she releases him he lunges for a nearby console and initiates an emergency lockdown. Startled, Zoe shoves him away from the keyboard, but in her alarm she forgets the strength of the U-87 and flings Philo head first into a support column, killing him instantly through blunt force trauma. In desperation, she steals a Graystone Industries company van and escapes the lab. Since the U-87 is a military contract, the military is called out to stop her. However, they are instructed not to destroy the robot. A roadblock is set up to stop her, but she barrels through. The van flips and crashes. The Death Walker The U-87 chassis was badly burned in Zoe's escape attempt and is now boxed in storage. However, Zoe's avatar survived and is developing a brave new life in New Cap City as one of the "Deadwalkers" - avatars who cannot be de-rezzed or killed. After a stunning display of strength and agility in a melée with some aggressive but unwitting mortal players, Zoe asks Brewer (the lone survivor of the gang) where she can find the other Deadwalker - Joseph's daughter, Tamara, whose mark the thug bears. When he pleads ignorance, Zoe ends his life and walks away, intent on her quest. In New Cap City, Zoe inadvertently walks into a fight game in Atlas Arena. Tamara calls gamers into the arena who lost loved ones in the MAGLEV bombing. They are going to avenge the deaths of their loved ones by attacking Zoe over and over again. Tamara knows Zoe cannot die, but she can suffer and feel pain. In doing this, Tamara is also avenging the deaths of her mother and herself. Avenging Angels Retaliation and Reconciliation Stopping Clarice The Shape of Things to Come Additional Images 101 Zoe and Zoe Avatar.jpg|Zoe Graystone counsels her avatar (left). 101 Zoe Avatar V-Club.jpg|Avatar Zoe in the V-Club. 102 Lacy Cylon Zoe.jpg|Cylon Zoe and Lacy comfort each other. 103 Discovering Tamara.png|Zoe and Lacy discover Tamara in the V-World. 105 Rip Your Arm Off.jpg|Daniel demonstrates the Cylon's capabilities at a Graystone board meeting. Zoe11.jpg|Daniel tries to force Zoe to reveal herself. 109 Zoe Strikes.jpg|Zoe crashes a van in a failed attempt to escape to Gemenon. 112 Zoe and Zoe Avatar.jpg|Zoe Graystone converses with her newly-created avatar (right). 115 Avenging Angels News.png|News of Zoe and Tamara as the Avenging Angels has reached the outside world. 117 Tamara Zoe Mtn Fortress.jpg|Tamara and Zoe in their virtual world mountain fortress 117 Angry Zoe.jpg|Zoe is angry with her parents. 117 Cylon Zoe Olaf Clarice.jpg|Olaf and Clarice fear for their lives after Zoe kills Nestor. 118 Zoe Destroys Virtual Heaven.jpg|Zoe confronts Clarice in Virtual Heaven 118 Episode.jpg|Avatar Zoe is born into a robot body with skin. (47YR) Zoe Lacy PR Shot.jpg|Publicity shot of Zoe and Lacy Zoe Lacy Clarice PR Shot.jpg|Publicity shot of Zoe, Lacy and Clarice Behind the Scenes General Each time she enters V-World, Zoe acquires a different outfit. Season Two "The Caprica Times" website interviewed Kevin Murphy about what would have happened if Caprica had been renewed for a second season. Murphy said, "Zoe is a Caprican Legionnaire. She’s a skin-job, but not the undetectable kind from Battlestar Galactica. It’s a rudimentary version of the technology. She’s more like Arnold in 'Terminator.' The writers reasoned that nobody in the future Battlestar Galactica series was aware this early skin-job existed because Daniel went to great pain and expense to keep it hidden. We would have learned that Jordan Duram survived his gunshot wounds, has permanently left the GDD and is Zoe’s commanding officer. He figures out her secret and helps her keep quiet in return for her assistance on sensitive black-ops missions. As for Zoe, she is mother of Cylons. Some ineffable portion of her 'soul' remains in every Cylon for reasons connected to why U-87s are so curiously protective of Zoe’s BFF Lacy. But Zoe has turned against her 'children' and has decided to cast her lot in with her human family and the human race." "During the five-year gap, we would have told the story (in flashback) of the many wrong turns along the road to creating skin-job Zoe. No matter how hard our two geniuses (along with plastic surgeon, Amanda) tried, they couldn’t bridge the 'uncanny valley' of revulsion humans experience when they meet a robot that’s almost human." "Michael Taylor had a rather inspired notion to intersect Zoe with the Final Five, who at the time of 'Caprica' are well-into a long, long space journey to the Twelve Worlds. The idea was that Zoe would eventually have run into a V-World that’s a sleepy little earth-like fishing village. A man is fishing at the end of a long pier and it turns out to be Aaron Douglas. The Final Five keep their brains active on their long journey to the Twelve Worlds by using their own V-World programs. They fish together for a while. Tyrol is very interested when she explains who she is and what her family is trying to accomplish. He gives her the gift of a fishing lure. When Zoe returns, the lure turns out to be code that gives them the piece they’ve been missing and Zoe gets a goo-bath. Years later, when the Final Five arrive in the flesh, we imagined Tyrol would have been very curious to see what was done with his gift from many years before." Capricatimes. "The Caprica Times Exclusive Interview: Kevin Murphy." The Caprica Times (edited), 29 April 2011. "I’m hazy now, but I believe Zoe became the basis for the Sixes. I forget the details. You’d have to ask Jane or Michael Taylor." Capricatimes, Ibid. Cultural References * Zoe (name) References Category:V-World Category:New Cap City Category:Avatars Category:Soldiers of the One